Getting the Most Out of College—and Life

Millions of college students are heading back to the classroom this fall and to hours of study and hard work. Many, however, will benefit little from their experience. Whether they do or not will depend largely on something quite simple and largely within their control: their intentions. Yet surprisingly few students—or their teachers—realize the power of those intentions.

Do all students have the right intentions when they study?

Research on these matters began nearly forty years ago with a single experiment at a Swedish university. In that and subsequent studies, psychologists have discovered that college students will take—usually without even realizing it—one of three basic approaches to their studies that will determine much of what they get out of school.

In that original investigation at Göteborg University, psychologists gave a group of students an article and asked them to read it. The collegiate volunteers scurried through the composition, some more quickly than others. Yet the speed with which they devoured the piece mattered far less than did another factor that began to emerge. As the researchers interviewed each of the students, they heard some of them say that they had simply tried to remember as much of the reading as possible. These “surface learners,” as the psychologists called them, looked for facts and words they could memorize, attempting to anticipate any questions someone might ask them. As we now know, they intended simply to pass the exam, not to benefit from anything they read.

Meanwhile, other students expressed much different purposes. They wanted to understand the meaning behind the text and to think about its implications and applications, to search for arguments, to distinguish between supporting evidence and conclusions, and to evaluate what they read. These students tried to comprehend what difference an idea, line of reasoning, or fact made, and how it related to something they had already learned. In short, these “deep learners” approached the piece with all of the enthusiasm of a five-year-old on a treasure hunt but with the added skills of analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and theorizing.

In the years following that first study, social scientists have identified a third style of learning that students often take. “Strategic” learners primarily intend simply to make good grades. These people will usually shine in the classroom and make their parents proud of their high marks. In many ways, they look like deep learners, but their fundamental intention is different. They focus almost exclusively on how to find out what the professor wants and how to ace the exam. If they learn something along the way that changes the way they think, act, or feel, that’s largely an accident. They never set out to do that. They simply want the recognition that comes from graduating with honors.

Although making the Dean’s List sounds like a worthy goal, the problem arises when that becomes the all-consuming goal of life rather than pursuit of the understanding and ability that might lead to those high honors. For one, strategic learners seldom become risk-takers because they fear something new or extra might mess up their grade point average. Thus, they rarely go off on an intellectual journey through those unexplored woods of life, riding their curiosity into a wonderland of intellectual adventure and imagination. They approach college with a checklist rather than with any sense of awe and fascination. As a result, these students often learn procedurally rather than conceptually, following the steps to a calculus problem but understanding little of the ideas behind it because they never intend to do so.

Back in the 1980's some Japanese theorists suggested one other possible outcome from learning procedures without learning concepts. They pointed out that experts come in at least two flavors. Routine experts know all the routines of their field (when you have this problem, this is what you do). "Adaptive experts" also know those conventional routines, but in addition they possess the ability and attitude both to recognize and even relish the opportunity and necessity for invention. Such experts love to take on the unknown, to tackle those really difficult and unusual problems. They enjoy and know how to improvise, invent, and overcome unexpected obstacles. By their very nature, deep learners practice adaptive expertise while strategic learners don't.

To take a deep approach means to take control of your own education, to decide that you want to understand, to create something new, to search for the meaning that lies behind the text, to realize that words on a page are mere symbols, and that behind those symbols lies a meaning that has a connection with a thousand other aspects of life and with your own personal development. Such intentions are intertwined with motivation, growing out of an internal drive but also feeding it with an important fuel and direction.

None of this means that surface learners never go deep, that deep learners don’t occasionally become strategic and even settle for shallow knowledge, or that strategic learners never understand anything. The research over the last forty years simply indicates that students will develop a style of learning that is predominantly deep, surface, or strategic, and it is this overriding intention that primarily shapes their lives. Many students never learn deeply simply because they never intend anything more than just to survive or shine in the academic world. They intend to pass the course or make an A in it, but that isn't the same as intending to understand and grow their minds.

Where do such powerful intentions arise? Can they be changed? In subsequent posts, we’ll explore some possible explanations for their origins, look at one powerful influence they have on study habits, and consider ways that some students have changed their intentions and their lives. Can you change your life with just good intentions? Ah, if only life were that simple!

According to this article, I'm a deep learner. I have always been this way. I enjoy learning, and that is how I approach life. I do remember, however, what a shock university was, particularly at the undergraduate level. I always felt like there was something wrong with me because most of the people around me studied for the grade (and the career that was to follow) and had no particular interest in the subject matter. They didn't learn how to think for themselves, and they didn't retain much from their classes after the final. I couldn't make much sense of it at the time, and I had a hard time trying to find people who thought they way I did. Those years were my most lonely and turbulent. With time and experience, however, I have gained perspective on the issue. The best part is that I now realise that the way I learn is actually a very good thing. What a relief! I am now very appreciative of myself and don't find other people intimidating at all.

I like the article and the information that you have provided in it. i could better understand my learning habits and the nature of learning as well as the skills needed. i will wait for the next article to know more about it. This is interesting, please publish more such articles. thank you.

I really liked the article. It is so true! I know a lot of people who are just aiming for the grades.. quite often they look for easiest subjects just so there would be no risk of compromising their GPA. I'm more of a deeper learner and as an undergrad (just graduated) I noticed that even though deep learners can definitely succeed in life the entire system somewhat forces the students to become strategic rather than deep learners. For example, to get to med school you need the proper grades other wise they won't even look at your application. So if student's aim is to get in, he/she will do whatever it takes to get the grades... so even if he/she started out as deep learner, quite soon strategic way of studying might become the priority. As a first year undergrad I had high expectations of the learning experience in university. However, by the end of the first year I became quite disappointed with the whole system. Most of the time university is just a place for people to compete not to learn or to understand deeply various concepts.

Absolutely 100% accurate. This is my evaluation from personal experience, analysis of myself and others. This notion of strategic learning unfortunately begins in early high school. The Sycophant learner rewarded!

I think the GPA mandating can be way to easily a form of brainwashing.
Because of that the effects are hurtful to the inner depth of each person that causes them to be way to strategic forcing them to lock in what really is thought.

Deep thinkers blossom straight away only sometimes, others take time to develop and because of that freedom suffers, but once there is the spiritual breakthrough there comes the astonishment of what deep thinkers produce be it straight away or eventually.

The mandating of getting the strategic GPA is a form of excess control forcing others patterns in the cortex.

As a parent and having attended education to get a degree and having experienced my grown children and their edu. I do believe that sharing and growing in a loving educational environment where education is really freedom and rewarding is where we are headed and it is part of what it means to be alive, not forcing patterns in the cortex of unwanted behaviors and thinking. After all we are eternal beings so it's not good to anger the deep spirit... it only produces war.

See what happens when you are a deep thinker... there's a deep big energy.

I do like the article. I also like the picture.. it makes me ask, what is the picture of and why is it that picture to this specific article?

I feel like there could be an additional note from the author or researchers to include that the correlations of the personal dignity or honor that people who choose to be academic 'surface' or 'strategic' learners do not (or at least I don't see it) match a persons persona life. For example, a person who takes a 'surface' learning approach to school may well indeed be a great father/family member as that is his/her values. My point is, it would be great to hear about future studies done on actual life satisfaction and the type of learner the person is. Thanks for the article.

I used to be deep learner in school,but when I came in college,i was like emotionally forced to be surface learner by my friends ,good C.G.P.A expectations ....cause if I ask question to my teacher in lec,my friends who prefer surface learning make fun of me on my back,they laugh at me if I tell them that I have understood something for exams instead of cram....so I was somehow gradually forced into that environment cause I don't actually want to ridiculous in front of majority of friends,so I started surface learning.....but I want to be myself....who is deep learner,,,who love to explore topics in class....I promise my self that I will always understand each and every topic and will try to explore all facts related to that topic...for doing most important thing is to believe in your self and maintain a distance from those f*ing surface learners.
good luck